What is interventional pain management?

What is interventional pain management?

            Interventional pain medicine incorporates procedures, majority of which are done in the clinic and patients go home the same day.  Many of the procedures require fluoroscopic (x-ray) guidance or ultrasound imaging.  These procedures are one part of an overall treatment plan.

Why Interventional procedures are commonly offered in the plan of care?

• Avoid and/or limit medication management. All medications have the risk of adverse side effects and in the long run, can cause detrimental permanent effects to your liver, stomach and kidneys. Medications, in the short term, can help you recover from your acute pain but if the pain persists for more than several weeks medications become a crutch that can be hard to overcome as well. In the end, medications help you cope and “take the edge off” your pain but do not help much in diagnosing or even treating the specific cause of your pain.

• Avoid the need for surgery. Nobody wants to have surgery. Interventional therapies can alleviate your pain, diagnose the cause of your pain and potentially fix the cause of your pain avoiding the need for unwanted and possibly unneeded surgery. Even if the procedure only helps short term, it can lead to a diagnosis that will help determine the best treatment for you.

• Provide a diagnosis. Each procedure helps to support and/or disprove a potential cause of your pain. If you have improvement in your pain after a procedure, this can help us determine where your pain is coming from. On the flip side, if you gain no improvement after the procedure, then the specific area that was injected is unlikely the cause of your pain. In the long run, if you have to have surgery, this can help the surgeon to target what needs to be operated on if an injection helped improve your pain.

• This can treat the problem and potentially heal your pain. There have been a number of patients who only have one injection and can have pain relief for years. If this alleviates your pain, you may be able to avoid having surgery and also reduce or completely eliminate the need for pain medications.

• Relief in minutes. Typically the majority of injections take less than 5 minutes. The total visit from the time you are checked in for your procedure to the time you leave normally is only 15 - 30 minutes long. The majority of patients will have immediate relief with the remaining individuals having significant relief within a couple of days.

Do I have a Role in the plan of care?

Absolutely

At Mission Advanced Pain Management, the physician recommendations are part of the overall  plan of care that will be tailored specifically for you. However, we make sure to communicate clearly to you and all your care teams to be working together as partners in order to achieve treatment goals in controlling your pain and improving your quality of life. 

It is not as simple as certain medications, specific injection or surgery, it is a team work effort and your active engagement in the plan of care is very important part for success. 

Your engagement could be: 

• Following certain medications regimen, 
• Making some life style changes
• Performing simple tasks that complement any procedure done or medication prescribed. 

Some of the tasks could be as simple as asking you to make sure you have a walk, meet friends or watch a funny movie once weekly. 

Also it could be by scheduling you for specific Physical Therapy and/or Exercises regimen that we will provide to you in order to get your life back in shape.  

We cannot emphasize it enough, Each person is different and that is exactly why our experienced provider will make sure you get personalized care, depending on lots of factors and considerations that are only related to you. 

We are on a mission to help you with your pain challenges that is holding you back from the quality of life you are hoping for.

After initiation of the plan, you may be seen for follow-up visits.  You may also be referred to other specialists (such as neurologists, rheumatologists, oncologists, surgeons, psychiatrists and/or physical therapists) at any time if it is deemed appropriate for your condition.